"ON WRITING"

January 9, 2002

i got a copy of stephen king’s “on writing” at the airport on my way home to manila. it’s in my bag and keeping me company on my bus ride to and from work. very interesting – makes me want to go ahead and write my own story about the couple in new york he mentions in his exercise.

in my version though, it happens in the slum area of bagong barrio, kalookan. the husband abuses the wife and has incest with his daughter. one night in a fit of rage, the husband accidentally hits his wife in the face and head. she goes crazy. he goes to jail. the daughter grows up in the streets of monumento – sniffing glue and selling her body to the bus drivers who ply the UE Kalookan – Baclaran route. they do it at night in a makeshift banig, right below the statue of andres bonifacio.

she is picked up one day by the local police, and sent to a local shelter run by the oblate priests of mary immaculate. she is dressed up by the parish staff and is asked to work as a cleaning lady of the grace park church. while washing the priest’s car one day, she finds a dirty old lady, totally nude. she notices the dented forehead and the drooping eye. it is her mother. she calls her name. mother looks up. in a moment of sanity, she recognizes her long lost daughter. she runs up to meet her little girl, but is run over by a truck. mommy dies. daughter cries.

melancholy and the infinite sadness…

the oblate priests sends poor daughter to cotabato as a lay missionary. there she lives among the manobo tribe, up the trails going to mount apo. she has found heaven. all around her are forests, miles of rubber trees and wild life she never thought existed. she thrives and lives and grows. the years pass…

one day while walking up a narrow passage, she hears a man talking to his pet dog in tagalog. curious upon hearing her native tongue, she approaches. she notices at once the man’s graying hair, long beard and christ like appearance. they talk and become friends. the man is a leader of a church of rizalistas who have settled in Kidapawan – they are a special sect who believed that jose rizal would come down from heaven with jesus christ himself through mount apo!

daughter and holy man meet regularly and soon they are drawn into each other. man proposes to marry the girl. only, she must be converted into a rizalista for the wedding to continue. after meeting with her spiritual directors, she reluctantly agrees. they get married on top of mount apo itself! the whole congregation erect a huge tent – the celebration continues for three days. on the third night, it is a full moon, the couple enter the holy tent for the ceremonial copulation – a ritual where the whole church waits outside the tent in prayer, while the couple share their first night as husband and wife.

the couple start at the tent’s entrance. ushers take off their shirts and pants. this is the first stage of the holy communion. candles light the way as they move into the inner sanctum, one by one they peel of their clothes and the rhythmic music starts. people chant. the children sing. now at the foot of the bed, nothing remains but underwear. both can feel what will happen next. there’s a tingle right before body contact. the slight tremor in the voice betrays the excitement. the main lamp is lighted and they take off their clothes. girl looks down shyly. the guy approaches and cups her face. he leads her face down his nipples. after a few moments he leads it further down to his belly button. he sighs and she trembles. with one push she is face to face with his cock. she holds it with both hands and start to stroke it. slowly his dick hardens and her face goes totally white…she sees a rose tattoo right at the base of her husband’s dick. it is the tattoo of her childhood. the tattoo of unbearable pain. it is the tattoo of her dad.